Category Archives: Media

Looking back: Early 1990s

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I launched my tiny monthly newsletter, Hawaii Monitor, in 1990 after leaving Neil Abercrombie’s staff at the Honolulu City Council. It was informed by what I had seen going on behind the scenes as well as my several years as director of the Hawaii office of Common Cause.

After a year or so, the 8-page monthly publication was having an impact.

Two years later, I accepted an offer to join the old Honolulu Star-Bulletin, back when Honolulu had two competing daily newspapers. I had successfully managed the transition from activist to self-taught journalist, but not before being named one of the Star-Bulletin’s “10 Who made a Difference” for 1993.

Giving back: Contributing to the future of the Maui News

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The Maui Nui Media and Creativity Collaborative, the new nonprofit owner of The Maui News, has announced a $10,000 fellowship for a Maui County-based journalist to dig deeper into the 2026 Maui County Council and mayoral elections.

The group’s news release on Saturday credits a donation Meda and I have made that is funding the project.

The inaugural Maui Nui Media and Creativity Collaborative Investigative Elections Reporting Fellowship will fund seven weeks of original, investigative, print-first reporting focused on the candidates, issues, and decisions shaping Maui County’s future. Made possible by a generous donation from Ian Lind and Meda Chesney Lind, the fellowship aims to strengthen accountability in local elections, support emerging journalistic talent, and give Maui County residents the information they need to engage in the democratic process.

Our involvement began when I saw that a nonprofit organization had stepped up to rescue the Maui News from final extinction, with ownership changing hands at the end of July. It’s going to be rough and rocky road, as they say, and we wanted to contribute to the efforts to give the newspaper another chance for longer term survival as a community-based nonprofit.

So we sat down and made a decision. We would dig down into our retirement savings and offer a grant. Tax deductible for us (and, yes, I did check their IRS 501(c)(3) credentials) and probably much needed on their end.

It’s hard to say whether it will increase the odds of the nonprofit route being successful, but we can hope.

I’ve been in communication for years with one of the nonprofit’s board members, attorney Lance Collins, so sent him a quick note offering a $10,000 grant. We put no strings on our offer, described simply as “to support a reporting project that would otherwise not get done.”

He forwarded my offer to board chair Axel Beers. And off we went.

I initially thought it would best be timed to follow a shake-out period as the newspaper adapted to the new ownership, but in speaking with Axel it became clear the greatest impact could be made by jumping in early.

Axel came back with their intent to use the funds to offer a fellowship for pre-election coverage of Maui County races during the important pre-General Election period.

The process will hopefully produce seven weeks of news that would otherwise not be written. It will also provide the new owners with an indication of journalists and aspiring journalists they might be able to draw on later.

And it meant that our contribution would flow directly through to a veteran or aspiring reporter, with a cash stipend of $10,000, articles appearing on the front page, and lots of networking opportunities while working directly with the newspaper’s managing editor. My years as struggling in the freelance world recognizes these as benefits I’m now glad to be passing on to someone else.

And perhaps it will encourage other potential donors to follow suit.

Here’s the full press release with details on how to apply. The deadline for applications is September 7. 2026.

Makua: The Captive Valley

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Back in 1983, I was digging into records at the State Archives and depositories for sources of information about how the military had accumulated so much land on Oahu and throughout the state.

A local newspaper, Ka Huliau, published my story on the history of military control of Makua Valley in its May-June 1983 issue.

Ka Huliau or “The Turning Point” was a left leaning, underground, independent newspaper printed by Hawaii Education for Social Progress, Inc..Published in the 1980s (presumably from 1982-1986) Ka Huliau self-identified as “An independent newspaper focusing on Hawaii and Pacific issues.” These issues included labor strikes, nuclear proliferation, socialism and others primarily in the context of their effect on Hawaiians and other Islanders.

I asked Google for the people behind Hawaii Education for Social Progress, and it identied several key players: The primary editors and staff members associated with the organization and publication included Roland Kotani, Grace Kotani, Cindy Broch, Gary Takiyama, John Witeck, and Lucy Witeck. Roland Kotani was appointed to the Hawaii House of Reprentatives by then Gov. John Waihee in 1987, and ran unopposed for the same seat in the 1988 election.

In a tragic turn of events, Roland Kotani was found bludgeoned to death in his home in July 1989. Grace Kotani, his estranged wife, agreed to be interviewed by HPD with her attorney present, and confessed to the killing. She then asked to use the restroom, killed herself with a handgun hidden in her purse.

The scan below is of mediocre quality, done many years ago, but I hope you’ll be able to read the article despite the quality issues.

Another example of an AI hallucination

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This is an example of Google’s Gemini AI assistant fabricating a totally fictitious transcript of a recorded interview.

The transcript didn’t just make some mistakes. It had no relation to the original recorded interview. It was completely made up.

Here’s the story. I was interviewed via Zoom by Neal Milner for a Civil Beat project he is working on. Milner is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Hawaii after teaching for decades, and is now a regular columnist for Civil Beat.

He was at his new home in Portland, Oregon, while I was here at our house in Honolulu. I set up the Zoom call at his request, and he asked if I would record it and send a transcript so that he didn’t have to take notes. That sounded simple, and I immediately agreed. We ended up talking for about 90 minutes.

When our call was finished, Zoom made it simple to download a zipped copy of the recording. From there, I thought that preparing a transcript would be simple.

I was very, very wrong.
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